Transcript File
Eeking Out a Life Assignment specifics! Understanding Text Structures: A Newspaper Article • • The purpose of a newspaper article is to give you factual information about current events. Many newspaper articles follow an inverted – or upside down – pyramid style. – The article begins with a summary lead, a sentence or paragraph that gives the main idea of the story – this is usually the most important idea or detail in the story. It is followed by the less important details of the article. • • • • • • Headline – the catchy boldface words that tell you what the article is about. Subhead -- additional boldface words in smaller type under the headline, which add details about the article. Byline – the name of the reporter who wrote the article. Dateline – the location where the article was reported and the date when the information was reported. Lead – the sentence or paragraph that begins the news article Tone – the choice of words and point of view that meet the interests of the newspaper’s audience. Tone often depends on the subject of the article. Some articles are light, lively, and humorous; others are serious and straightforward. 1. What is the purpose of a newspaper article? 2. Describe the inverted-pyramid structure of a typical newspaper article. 3. Summarize the information from the article that answers the questions who? what? when? where? why? and how?. 4. Describe the tone of the article. Why do you think the reporter decided to use this tone? 5. The headline title of this article contains a pun, which is a play on word meanings. What two words, both pronounced “eek,” is the headline playing with? 1. The structure of a newspaper article is said to be similar to an A) octagon, B) inverted pyramid, C) oval, D) upsidedown T 2. The dateline of the article names which city? A) Salt Lake City, B) Des Moines, C) Buxton, D) Simi Valley 3. The subhead of the article tells you that A) something is eeking out a life, B) a couple has adopted a stray rat, C) the rat may have been chased by an owl, D) rats have become popular 4. The byline of the news article shows it was written by A) George G. Toudouze, B) Nachshon Rose, C) Matt Surman, D) Sunny Jim 5. The lead of this article – A) is an attention grabber, B) makes a serious statement about dangerous rats, C) answers who? What? Where? When? And how?, D) presents the story’s main idea 6. The main idea of this article is A) a couple loves its adopted rat, B) rats can’t live with people, C) keeping a rat at home is dangerous, D) the rat population is a problem